How The Mom & Pop Tack Shop Survives and Thrives in a Big Box Land This is not your mother’s saddlery!


T e horse industry in Maryland is undergo- ing a renaissance; not since before the Great Recession have we seen so many innovative horse businesses being launched. No longer the usual menu of lessons, boarding or training, Maryland’s over 1,600 commercial stables off er a hodgepodge of exciting new programs, from driving to therapeutic to interactive programs that don’t involve riding at all. We are seeing a similar growth in product in- novation and small manufacturing businesses. Retail, however, is a diff erent story. In 1997, T e Equiery database had 42 tack


stores. In 2007, we had 56. Today, in 2017, we have only 36 locally and independently owned and operated retail stores with physical loca- tions, which predominantly sell new riding equipment and apparel,


the quintessential


“Mom & Pop Tack Shop.” Just in the last year, we lost Dogwood Tack in


Jarrettsville, and the original Gayer’s Saddlery in Upper Marlboro. What happened? T e internet of everything is what happened.


The 90s & the Dot-Com Race


It was the 1990s, and John Nunn was operat- ing an almost frantic retail operation, with his Bit of Britain fl agship location in Cecil County, two mobile units, daily racetrack deliveries and a burgeoning catalogue business for the event- ing market. He also launched a manufacturing and wholesale company, Nunn Finer Products. In 1994, an online book and music store was launched: amazon.com. T e eff ect was imme- diate, as record stores, giant bookstore chains and small independent booksellers disappeared. John decided to get on board that dot-com


train. Because of his catalogues, he was in a good position to transition to online retailing, as he had already digitized his inventory and installed a fulfi llment network. When e-blasts and “deals of the


day” became the marketing trend, he was on it, working with his vendors to scoop up close-outs and launch- ing a site called tackoftheday.com. In the world of equine-technology, John was an early adapter and adopter.


20+ Years Later


Today, our industry has something it did not have 20 years ago: national retail chains. With their volume-buy- ing power, these are challenging com- petitors for the independently owned tack stores.


Getting Social


vive by cheaply selling lots of product. Nor do they want to. For these owners, tack stores are not just about moving inventory and making a buck. Horse people own tack stores because they are passionate about horses, about horse stuff and about horse people. Tack stores are community resources, places where horse peo- ple come together, and where shopkeepers and staff share their knowledge in an intimate en- vironment. So what does a 21st century bricks-and-mor-


tar retailer do? And how do they embrace the digital world without being an online retailer? We asked a few Maryland equestrian retailers.


Even before it was a retail trend, The Surrey always held a variety of social events for cli- ents, such as its annual holiday open house – any excuse for a party! When Kay Titus (left with Lyne Morgan on the right) retired after 28 years, The Surrey, of course, threw a big party – and the store was jammed!


But it gets worse. Today, Walmart.com off ers over 2,000 equine


related products from saddle soap to saddles. And remember that online bookseller from


1994? Today, Amazon.com has 28,022 results under “Equestrian Equipment!” (T is is the point in a Washington Post article in which edi- tors would insert a disclaimer explaining that the Jeff Bezos, owner of amazon.com also owns the Post; unlike the Post and everything else in this world, Bezos does not own T e Equiery – but we would be happy to change that! Jeff , please call!) T ese behemoths have something that the Mom & Pop will never have: tremendous pur- chasing power and the ability to sell product with razor thin margins because it is all about volume (see box out about margins). Today’s Mom & Pop tack shop cannot sur-


Doubling Down on Trust Once upon a time the shop owner was the


trusted curator of products, using his or her professional knowledge to cultivate an invento- ry for which he or she could personally vouch. Tack store staff ers were once considered “the” knowledgeable go-to people for advice. “Today, people don’t think they need you [the tack store owner]; now they google to learn,” explains Hope Birsh, owner of Maryland Saddlery and immediate past president of the American Equestrian Retailer Association, which hosts the bi-annual wholesale trade show exclusively for retail store owners.


Crowd-sourcing for


knowledge and recommendations, using online reviews or Facebook opinions, “today’s shopper will trust the four star online rating for some product,” continues Hope, “without really hav- ing any idea if the people rating the products have any knowledge or qualifi cations! Who knows who those people are?” Michelle Jennings at T e Mill is combat-


ing that by ramping up the education of staff , working closely with vendors, such as Farnam, to educate her employees about the products (and she compensates the employees for time spent in classes and seminars). “Sure, someone continued...


Loyalty Three years ago, Hope Birsh, owner of Maryland Saddlery, helped launch Horseland at the Maryland State Fair, volunteer- ing in her “free time” to help create interactive, gateway expe- riences for non-horse. She continues to oversee this massive 13-day project, which involves over 56 equine organizations and over 300 volunteers. It is hard to get a picture of her during the event as she is in constant motion, but there she is, on the far right, helping kids! “People forget,” says Lyne Morgan, owner of The Surrey, “it’s not the big online retailer who is going to be the one support- ing the local shows, providing the prizes and gift certifi cates. Those big companies want the Olympic riders and national show sponsorships. It is the local retailer who supports the local shows and events.”


PUBLISHER’S NOTE: For the purposes of this article, we focused on independently and locally owned and operated Maryland brick-and-mortar stores which predominantly sold riding equipment and apparel, the classic “tack shop” or “saddlery.” T e Mill was included because it used to sell riding equipment and apparel, and that they no longer do is germane to the tack store story and changing business models. Although Bit of Britain is now located in Pennsylvania, it was originally based in Maryland and its owner resides in Maryland, and thus it was included in this article – although not in our count of the number of independently owned and operated tack stores in Maryland!


80 | THE EQUIERY | OCTOBER 2017 800-244-9580 | www.equiery.com


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